National Gallery of Art

The National Gallery of Art, "one of the world's preeminent museums, was created for the people of the United States of America by a joint resolution of Congress accepting the gift of financier, public servant, and art collector Andrew W. Mellon in 1937, the year of his death. The Gallery's collection of some 116,000 paintings, drawings, prints, photographs, sculpture, and decorative arts traces the development of Western art from the Middle Ages to the present."

"The National Gallery of Art was created in 1937 for the people of the United States of America by a joint resolution of Congress, accepting the gift of financier and art collector Andrew W. Mellon. During the 1920s, Mr. Mellon began collecting with the intention of forming a gallery of art for the nation in Washington. In 1937, the year of his death, he promised his collection to the United States. Funds for the construction of the West Building were provided by The A. W. Mellon Educational and Charitable Trust. On March 17, 1941, President Franklin D. Roosevelt accepted the completed building and the collections on behalf of the people of the United States of America."

Directors (2003)
Accessed August 2008:

The members of the Board of Trustees of the National Gallery of Art are The Chief Justice of the United States, the Secretary of State, the Secretary of the Treasury, the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution:


 * Victoria P. Sant - President
 * Robert F. Erburu
 * Julian Ganz, Jr.
 * David O. Maxwell
 * John C. Fontaine
 * Robert H. Smith - Chair

Contact

 * Web: http://www.nga.gov

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